Russia: Moody’s improves outlook on RUSAL’s rating to Positive

International rating agency Moody’s has improved its outlook of corporate ratings of Russian aluminum giant UC RUSAL to Positive from Stable, affirmed the corporate credit rating at Ba3 and the probability of default rating at Ba3-PD, the agency said in a research note late on September 26.

Moody’s improved the outlook due to deleverage of the company since January 1 after the sales of aluminum raised profit and dividends.

Leverage contracted to 3.6x as of June 30 from 4.9x as of the end of 2016, and the agency expects the company to cut it to below 3.5x thanks to an inflow of dividends from metals giant Norilsk Nickel and cutting gross debt, Moody’s said.

The agency also expects the company to receive a significant inflow of cash and to maintain a healthy liquidity level. (Prime/Ukrainian metal)